MDDM18: Half and Half

[Dave Monroe]

   "'Half and Half please, Mount Kenya Double-A, with
Java Highland,-- perhaps a slug o' boil'd Milk as
well...?'
   "'Planning on some elevated Discourse tonight?'
jests the Coffee-Draper ..." (M&D, Ch. 3, p. 298)

Yet another wry reference to the novel's (as opposed
to, but also in parallel with, its characters',
settings', et al.) context.  The ol' fake-out at "Half
and Half" there (NOT referring to the "boil'd Milk"),
followed by Dixon essentially ordering a particularly
strong cafe au lait ...

Main Entry: ca·fé au lait 
Pronunciation: (")ka-'fA-O-'lA
Function: noun
Etymology: French, coffee with milk
Date: 1763
1 : coffee with usually hot milk in about equal parts
2 : the color of coffee with milk

Which, noting the date of coinage if you will (and you
will), is terribly au courant here.  Dixon is a
"Needle man anxious" not only "to obtain the lttest
Magnetick Intelligence" (p. 198), but also hip to the
very latest in caffeinated cocktails as well.  Also
makes sense given the strangely (given, say, events
earlier in the novel, even) Francophile
"Flower-de-Luce" ...

And on "Mount Kenya Double-A, with Java Highland" ...

"Further complicating logical delineation is the
superimposition of 18th-century idioms and
20th-century references into a hybrid style that is
both familiar and foreign. This style combines
features of 18th-century English prose, such as the
prolonged, momentum-gathering Ciceronian periodic
sentence and the strategically Capitalized Noun, with
knowing discursions into contemporary parlance,
including the sly winks of conscious anachronism,
which allow microscopic moments of history not only to
recur as farce but to gain farcical effect in both
their contexts. The border between centuries
collapses--and the framing artifice becomes
visible--in jokes about using Indian Hemp without
inhaling (10); the Learned English Dog's sharing an
acronym with light-emitting diodes (when 'The L.E.D.
blinks' [22]), along with Fender Bodine's question
'...would the li'oo Doggie be for sale?' echoing the
lyrics of the postwar novelty song 'How Much Is That
Doggie in the Window?' (23); the references to
subatomic physics that flicker throughout the text,
such as the string-theory and Higgs-boson joke
involving 'the Boatswain, Mr. Higgs' and his obsession
with rigging (54-55); the complex verbal riffing on
musical forms from Plato's modal scales to
Philadelphia soul and rock 'n' roll at the end of
Chapter 26; the flavor of a 1990s upscale coffeehouse
as Dixon orders what appears to be a Kenya AA and Java
Highland latté (298) ..."

http://www.columbia.edu/~wbm1/snovian.html

Though I'd quibble with Millard's "latté" here ...

Main Entry: lat·te 
Pronunciation: 'lä-(")tA
Function: noun
Date: 1991
: CAFFE LATTE

Main Entry: caf·fe lat·te 
Pronunciation: 'kä-(")fA-'lä-(")tA
Function: noun
Etymology: Italian caffelatte, short for caffè e latte
coffee and milk
Date: 1927
: espresso mixed with hot or steamed milk

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

And see as well, e.g. ...

http://sovrana.com/libstory.htm

http://www.newafrica.com/coffee/articlepg.asp?ID=2189

But me, I'm a plain ol' straight up in a small ceramic
cup on saucer black coffee type, myself, so ...

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